41. Be professional and courteous to your customers.
Marketing goes beyond your press releases or your pay per click advertising. It is how you present yourself in every touch points with customers. Do you answer the phone professionally and pleasantly? How fast do you respond to the emails of your customers? Do you look credible and trustworthy? It is important to remember that every single interaction with your prospects promotes your business.
42. Offer guarantees.
To show your confidence that the customer will love their products, this is a simple guarantee wherein a refund will be made if the customer is not satisfied with a product or service. Guarantees show your customers that you stand by your products 100% and that you strongly believe your offerings will work. By providing a guarantee, you put your prospective customers at ease, giving them no reason NOT to buy or NOT to work with you. You can offer money-back guarantee, satisfaction guarantee, price protection guarantee, or even on-time guarantee.
43. Provide giveaways.
Giveaways never fail to attract customers for your business. If you know that you have an excellent product or service, and you know that consumers will love it if they just see its effectiveness, then the best way to do it is through giveaways! For consumer service businesses, you may want to offer your product for free estimates if you are in a service-oriented business. Retail businesses may hand out balloons or other novelty items to build traffic or retain customer interest.
44. Give exclusive offerings.
To inspire feelings of loyalty and entice existing customers to use your business again, you can give exclusive or loyalty offerings. One way is through lower prices for repeat or multiple purchase/visits/usage of service. Offering exclusive purchases or invitation to special previews or new merchandise to existing customers is a great way to inspire a feeling of excitement and loyalty. To enhance participation, you may wish to offer a discount. The key is to try to make your offer new and exciting.
45. Provide new customer offers.
Attracting new customers is one of the most difficult marketing challenges to achieve even with powerful advertising or a dedicated sales force. That’s why different businesses offer incentive pricing, freebies, or extra advertising allowances for new customers.
46. Start a Contest.
People love contests: it has never failed to attract people to participate and try their luck to win. With the advent of social media, it is easier for contests to become viral. For your contests to generate considerable interest from the public (and even the media), you need to infuse it with fun, even make it silly. Take for example the contest launched by one dot-com: the search for “America’s Ugliest Office.” Contests like these surely will generate considerable media interest – and remember, this is essentially free advertising.
47. Give gifts.
“Free” is such a powerful word in marketing that it never fails to attract buyers. Offer free gifts with your regularly priced items, and chances are the customers become much more receptive to your products. People love to receive something for free, even if they have to pay a premium price for a more expensive item to get the freebie.
48. Consider inexpensive specialty advertising.
Emblazon or print your business name including other business information in a key chain, mouse pad, notepad, calculator, pens, mugs and other giveaways. Specialty advertising or promotional products represent one of the most powerful and most affordable form of marketing that every small business owner should explore. Give them to your most loyal customers during the holidays, or set up giveaway contests to attract site visitors and customers.
49. Sponsor events in your community.
Sponsoring events can turn your products into public spectacles and, as a result, transform your marketing into news events. Events help launch products, gain wider distribution, build awareness, and just plain sell. Betty Crocker sponsored bake-offs; perhaps your business can sponsor a trade fair in your locality. Others start their own contests, and send out press releases to announce the contest. The interest generated by your contest may attract the media and give you the free publicity that you need!
50. Use RSS Feeds to distribute your content in the Web.
RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) is an easy way to distribute your products, articles, blogs, and other content all over the Web. Set up your feed, display it prominently in your website and invite users to subscribe to your feed. Use Feedburner, which even allows your subscribers to receive your feed updates via email. You need to promote your feed so people subscribe to it and you can also make your feed available to other websites for more exposure. Check out “Resources for Marketing Your Blogs and RSS Feeds”
Put your imagination to work… instead of your wallet and watch the business roll in.
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How to Overcome Fear When Starting a Business
Thanks for sharing. What a pleasure to read!